User:(WT-en) Meltwaterfalls

Meltwaterfalls My name is Ian and I currently live in Dublin, Ireland, however I hail from Portsmouth in Southern England. I love to travel and attempt to get off to places near and far as regularly as possible.

One of my key travel objectives is to visit places on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Here are my reviews

Europe
I try to visit somewhere in Europe fairly regularly, and have covered some chunks of Western and Central Europe in great detail, however I still love travelling to new cities even in countries I know well. I have the long term ambition of visiting every European country. So far I have big gaps in my travels having not visited Scandinavia, Eastern Europe or the Balkans, hopefully I can rectify this in the coming years. Here is an overview of the places I have visited

UK (Brighton, Winchester, Conwy, York, Chichester, Bath, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Cardiff)

Ireland(Dublin, Galway, County Kerry, County Westmeath, Kilkenny, Glendalough, Belfast, Giant's Causeway, Limerick, Skellig Michael)

France (Strasbourg, Lyon, Avignon & Provence, Paris, Brittany, Normandy, Nord-Pas de Calais, Dordogne, Vendee)

Czech Republic (Olomouc, Prague, Brno, Kutna Hora, Český Krumlov, České Budějovice, Karlovy Vary, Telc, Litomysl)

Germany (Berlin, Trier, Dresden, Cologne, Aachen, Lubeck, Würzburg, Bamberg, Rhine, Frankfurt, Bremen)

Belgium (Antwerp, Brussels, Leuven, Brugge, Gent)

Netherlands (Amsterdam, the Hague, Delft, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Zaandvort)

Malta (Valletta, Mdina, Gozo)

Portugal (Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Algarve)

Italy (Milan, Modena, Florence, Rome, Syracuse, Noto)

Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, 'the Holiday coasts')

Luxembourg (Luxembourg, Ettlebruck)

Poland (Krakow)

Austria (Vienna)

Hungary (Budapest)

Slovakia (Bratislava)

Switzerland (Geneva)

Iceland (Reykjavik)

I try to travel outside Europe once a year, There is so much I would love to see but money time and the lure of budget airlines mean that travels outside Europe are less frequent. However I have managed to visit a few countries further afield

North America
USA (Chicago, California, Arizona, Nevada, New York, Boston, Washington, Florida)

Africa
Tunisia (Tunis, Dougga, Matmata, Sfax, Sousse, Kelibia) Morocco (Marrakesh and Surrounds)

Australasia
Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Blue Mountains)

Future travel plans
Short Term
 * Wales A weekend around Conwy and Snowdonia


 * Berlin a long weekend, with a side trip to Dessau and Wittenberg


 * Belgium to see friends in Gent


 * Stockholm a visit to see in the New Year, maybe a visit to Uppsala and Falun


 * Warsaw a quick weekend in January

Longer term


 * Uzbekistan has been the place that has caught my imagination and I hope to visit sometime in the next few years, especially the Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Buhkara


 * Iran is a place I would really love to see and I have planned route's around it, seeing the big sites. i hope at some stage I will be able to make these plans a reality


 * Mali French West Africa has a certain je ne sais quoi and the cities of Djenne and Timbuktu have a real draw.


 * Ethiopia just seems like a world apart and a very unique travel experience


 * Peru as with most travellers Machu Picchu is just too big a draw to ignore


 * Cambodia same as Peru but the trump card is Angkor


 * Baltics, I have had a book on the Baltic states for a long time and will get around to visiting at least one of them soon, Riga tops the list.


 * Spain I don't feel I have really scratched the surface with Spain and hope to see more of the real countryAndalucia has a huge draw and I am sure I will get there sometime soon, the Moorish legacy is my main aim. The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is something I have read alot about and whilst I probably wont become a Camino a visit to some of the places on the route would be nice.


 * Greece seems to be the sort of place that I would love but just never quite get around to visiting, I am sure that will be rectified. The different world of Mount Athos has been of interest to me.